


You Really Got a Hold on Me

by Iyearnforaplotadvancement



Series: Try Me [2]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Musing on relationships, One Shot, Pining, Romance, part 2 series, yeah it's a raccoon and an alien
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-08-03
Packaged: 2020-07-29 23:08:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20090308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iyearnforaplotadvancement/pseuds/Iyearnforaplotadvancement
Summary: It was the oddest thing, Nebula had started to think Peter's Terran music was making sense to her.





	You Really Got a Hold on Me

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! People really seemed to like my other fic "Fooled Around and Fell in Love", which was posted as a real short drabble just because. I guess it really took off because people were fresh off of that Endgame high. I had thought Rocket and Neb were cute so imagine me when I saw the end of IW and NEBULA AND ROCKET WERE THE ONES NON-SNAPPED. AND THEN IMAGINE ME SEEING THOSE TWO MEET IN ENDGAME. I JUST-
> 
> Anyways-,
> 
> I really like crack-shipping as y'all can tell. So I have decided to post this part 2 in which we try to recapture some of that magic of part one and get Nebula's perspective on some stuff. I dunno if I wanna do a part 3. We'll see if I can cook up something. Anyways enjoy and leave me comments because I love reading them all!
> 
> Also, this drabble is related in part to my longer, more comprehensive fic "I Was Sparing You", in which in that canon Neb/Kragling are trying to be a thing. For more info, check the notes on Fooled Around. You don't need to read that to get this, though it might help. (Or not, tbh). Okay no more note. Enjoy
> 
> Also the set list for this series.
> 
> 1\. Fooled Around and Fell in Love- Elvin Bishop  
2\. You Really Got a Hold On Me- Smokey Robinson and The Miracles  
3\. Bring It Back Home- Sam Cooke  
4\. Try Me- James Brown

“Hey so,  _ Rocket, _ wants to ask you-,”

“Why isn’t he asking me then,?” Nebula asserted. 

Peter backtracked, “I’m-ah-that’s a good question,”

She stared back at him. Nebula’s eyes were an inky void that threatened to swallow him up and never spit him back out. When Rocket had said he could get lost in them, Peter didn’t image it would be the terrifying kind of lost.

“I’ll...go find him?” Peter offered, after the silence had gotten too awkward.

Nebula huffed.

* * *

“Have you talked to Rocket lately,” asked Gamora as she and Nebula cleaned their blasters.

“No,” Nebula replied curtly.

Gamora had made a face. Nebula knew the expression came right before some childish, sly remark. 

“He likes you,”

“We are friends, as I understand,” 

“No. He  _ likes _ you,”

Nebula had stopped polishing the handle of her blaster and let her sister’s words sink in. A painful knot had formed in her stomach and she rose from her position and placed the blaster on the table next to her. 

Gamora eyed her sister with caution, “Neb, don’t freak out-,”

“Excuse me-,” Nebula choked out, before disappearing into the farther recesses of the ship.

* * *

“Blue One, you have returned,” Drax announced as Nebula had stepped into the Milano.

She’d been gone for three days after the conversation with Gamora. Where she had gone, Drax hadn’t asked. Nebula had thought he hadn’t noticed. The giant oaf was less than partially aware of his surroundings.

“I have,” 

“Sit down, eat some of this yar-root. Rocket has bought it for us to enjoy,” Drax said, holding out a fruit for her.

Yar-root was her favorite. The other guardians enjoyed it, but not as Nebula had. She had remembered Gamora’s words and tried not to think that the three crates of ripening fruit on the back counter had been just for her. 

Stiffly, Nebula sat down with Drax and ate the fruit in silence.

In a waste bin nearby was a handwritten note from Rocket to Nebula.

* * *

Nebula had caught Groot in the bay area of the Milano. She was hoping to find Rocket, but had only found the sentient tree wandering about like a lost child.

“Hello, Tree,” Nebula greeted softly. It was late. Well, “late”. In the vastness of space there wasn’t a night and day cycle to dictate sleep. 

“I am Groot,” he replied. 

Nebula nodded slowly, “I know. Your friends have made me aware,”

“I am Groot?”

“I-I don’t know, it’s just different. I’m not used to this...situation,”

“I am Groot,”

“Kraglin and I are very good friends, there isn’t anything between us. Not from me, not now…”

“I am Groot.”

“I don’t want to needlessly harm the Fox if I don’t have to,”

Groot had made a soft expression and enveloped Nebula in a splintery hug. She had pretended not to enjoy it. “I am Groot,” Groot said with certainty. He placed her back on the ground.

Nebula rolled her shoulders and sighed heavily, “Things were easier when no one cared about me except me,”

* * *

Nebula had visited Mantis first when she woke. 

The younger woman had risen from what looked like sleep and smiled genuinely at Nebula, “I have anticipated your presence and I have prepared for you a chair,”

Nebula looked at the small stool Mantis had procured and for some reason felt compelled to sit.

“What troubles you, Nebula,”

“The fox has feelings for me,”

“Ah yes, I remember, he has told me,”

Nebula made a face, “What has he said?”

“That you make him feel normal. Validated,”

Nebula rolled her lips as she tried to process the information. “He said that?”

“No, but I felt it. You see him as an equal,” Mantis continued.

“Why wouldn’t I?”

Mantis shrugged, “Orangics are complex life forms, even semi-organics. Everyone has their reasons for feeling the way they do,”

Nebula mulled over Mantis’s words.

“I can feel you have a deep regard for him as well,” Mantis said as she slid her hand over Nebula’s. Nebula had allowed very few people to touch her. Mantis was on that small list.

Nebula watched as Mantis’s face blossomed into a look of joy and then settle considerably into a content, half-lidded expression. A single tear escaped her eye and rolled down her cheek, splattering onto the floor.

“Oh-oh my,” Mantis said as she smiled, still crying. She rested her head on top of their joined hands. Nebula squirmed in her seat as Mantis read her.

When she was done, she looked up at Nebula and wiped her tears away. “Nebula, my friend. I am so sorry-,”

“-Don’t-,” Nebula made move to leave, but Mantis held her down with surprising strength. 

“I do not mean to pity you, friend,” Mantis assured, “I am simply mourning for what you have lost,” 

“Mourning’s over, it has been for a long time. Dry your tears,”. In an act of uncharacteristic tenderness, Nebula reached out and wiped a tear from Mantis’s face. Again, the younger woman smiled and shook her head. 

“I am not crying for what you have lost. I am happy for what you can gain,”

* * *

When she was back on Kraglin’s ship, she thought about calling Rocket. 

She felt odd. She wanted to talk to him, to hear his voice. And then she pinched her oragic arm hard for having such thoughts.

_ He’s a damn animal, you know they jail people like you on some planets? _

Nebula snorted. She was right to think that way, but what did it matter? 

She’s a cybernetic assassin, he’s a lab experiment, everyone’s out in the middle of space chasing after man with stones that can destroy the whole universe. So what if she wants to enjoy the company of a raccoon?

Nebula sighed heavily and rubbed her eyes. 

Why couldn’t these thoughts plague her in the morning when she could easily make a decision, not late in her day when she had all these ideas and no way to execute them. 

Nebula rolled over in her cot and felt the familiar, metal arm she’d gotten from Kraglin. It had been the arm she’d looked for from Contraxia and the one she kept with her. It’s purpose had been a spare, but the truth was that she admittedly formed some attachment to it. She told everyone it broke and didn’t tell them she secretly kept the scraps.

Maybe because it reminded her of him.

Soft Kraglin. Timid Kraglin. 

Surprisingly accepting and not as dumb as he appeared Kraglin.

She sighed again and closed her eyes.

The fact she was even equating the two was awkward for her. It made her proverbial skin want to crawl. This was so embarrassing for her to pine after  _ boys _ . She hadn’t been a youngling for some time, so why was she bothering with them now?

Once upon a time, romance had been something she had hoped she could have had a chance at. But time proved to her that was a silly goal. 

“Forget about that, Nebula,” Advised her ‘father’. “There is no need for you to seek companionship. That’s not how it works in this family,”

Come to think of it now, though...she did have a new family didn’t she?

Come to think of it, no one owned her. She could make her own decisions now.

Come to think of it, if Thanos really was hellbent on decimating half the universe with a slim chance to be beaten...

Well maybe she should try the romance thing before it was too late.

* * *

“Peter’s having some dumb-ass watch party, maybe you should-,”

“Yes,” Nebula said in the assured manner she always spoke in. 

It still seemed to catch Rocket off guard, “Uh-really?”

“Yes,”

“But you hate Peter’s Earth movies-,”

“Do you want me to go or not-,”

“Yeah-yeah, come over,”

“Okay I will. But if Peter tries to hug me again I  _ will _ brain him,”

“Don’t worry, the only one who’s gonna be huggin’ you around here is me,” Rocket said, not realizing what he’d said. 

Nebula raised her brow, she almost felt playful.

“What I meant was-. I mean we can hug, it’s nothin’ weird-,”

Nebula flashed him a toothy smile and cut the communication link. She’d let him squirm until she saw him again. 


End file.
